


that night

by dw_fwedewick_heweiden



Category: Cookie Run (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Magic, Oneshot, another wizard fic, wizard has abandonment issues, wizard has issues in general
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:40:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22503406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dw_fwedewick_heweiden/pseuds/dw_fwedewick_heweiden
Summary: Wizard makes a rather unfortunate discovery.(Self indulgent AU oneshot.)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	that night

Night has fallen in the Cookie Kingdom. Almost everyone who should be sleeping is asleep, and everything is quiet.

However, in one corner of the kingdom, far from anything important (or perhaps close to everything important?), there stands a library. On first glance, it appears dark and abandoned. There is very little light inside of it, save for one little patch from a candle, which a certain wizard is using to read a book.

As he reads, he leans against a bookshelf; he’s deep within the aisles of the library, in a dusty section that hadn’t been used since the library was abandoned. Well, not until now, that is. It’s certainly getting a lot of use now.

In the past few days, Wizard has been trying to get more familiar with his home; the realization that he hadn’t ever explored areas of the place he lived in had unsettled him, and he’d taken to roaming the aisles. Obviously, that is what he had been doing, before he’d found this rather interesting book on magical artifacts and gotten caught up in that. Now, it is long after when he should be asleep.

Not that that matters much to him. He hasn’t slept in a week, after all.  _ Though _ , he muses, _ I probably should move, or I’ll end up mussing up the books behind me. Wouldn’t want that to happen. _

With that in mind, he marks his place in the book and stands up, carefully picking up his candle. He makes his way back to the closet that he calls his room, stumbling a few times as he tries to balance his candle and his book at the same time. 

Once he reaches the closet, he extinguishes the candle and opens up the closet door slowly, shutting it behind him. For a moment, it is pitch black, and he fumbles for the lantern that he knows is there for a good minute before he finally finds it. The light fills the small room, generating a cozy atmosphere. Once he’s sure that every trace of darkness is gone, he burrows into the many, many blankets that he has shoved into the small space and opens his book back up.

Half an hour later, Wizard pauses. Something is missing, he can feel it, but what? He stands up, brushing off the blankets that were on top of him, and sets his book aside once more. Picking up the lantern, he opens the door to the closet. It wouldn’t hurt to check on his things and make sure they were all still there.

As he paces the aisles of the library, he finds himself wondering when he last went outside of it. It must have been during the cursed tome incident, at least three months ago. When was the last time anyone had stopped by, after that?

Well, really it had only been Cinnamon stopping by. But still.

Something falls to the ground elsewhere in the library, making him jump and almost drop the lanturn. Quiet as a mouse, he hurries over to the origin of the sound, and stops short. The only thing in the immediate area other than bookshelves is a single, simple-looking book.  _ Must’ve fallen off the shelf,  _ he thinks, trying to calm his nerves.  _ Nothing sinister. Probably just unstable. _

Still, it worries him a bit. He puts the book back on the shelf.

Wizard returns to his routine, checking everywhere he’s placed objects. Nothing is missing, nothing at all, which is what disturbs him. He doesn’t go back to his closet, not yet; instead, he paces just outside of it, holding the lantern somewhat close to him as he tries to remember anything he may have missed. Nothing comes to mind.

_ Maybe I’m just tired. I haven’t been sleeping again… _

He gives up and goes back into his closet, setting the lantern aside and burrowing himself under the blankets again. He opens the book, but the words almost seem to blur together until he’s not really reading them anymore. Once again, he finds himself lost in thought, though this time, his train of thought was much different.

When was the last time he’d seen anyone at all?

It was a question that had been nagging him for the past few days, though he’d done his best to push it to the back of his mind and focus on his studies. Now, though, there is nothing to distract him from it.

Wizard burrows further under the blankets as he considers things. Cinnamon hadn’t visited since the tome incident; and of course, Prophet hadn’t really ever visited in the first place until then. He isn’t sure why Creampuff stopped visiting; there wasn’t a clear reason given at the time, and there isn’t one now. No one else had really come to see him, either way. Thinking back on it, he hadn’t really given them a reason to visit; he’s just the weird kid who lives in a library, after all.

This, of course, brought him to the topic of the person who had visited him, almost insistently, to the point where it had become almost irritating. (Almost.) Cinnamon, however, seemed to have lost interest in him, now; a pang of loneliness runs through him as he realizes this is the only logical explanation. 

_ Or maybe Cinnamon got fed up with me in general. That’s highly possible. I didn’t exactly treat him kindly. _

He wonders why he’s only now realizing how much he relied on the magician for...anything, really. But the past can’t be changed, and he knows this. He’ll simply have to deal with the isolation; he did this to himself, after all. He was the one who refused to give in, not Cinnamon.

Wizard sighs softly as this sets in. It’s really his fault he’s so alone, isn’t it?

He allows himself to muse on this for a few minutes before crushing the emotions back down again. It doesn’t really matter, anyway. His studies are more important than anything else.

He stands up. His head feels fuzzy, a sure sign of both exhaustion and overthinking.  _ Maybe I should go outside and take a walk. That helps, sometimes.  _ When was the last time he’d seen the stars, anyway? Not for a long while, that was for sure.

Picking up his small lantern, he makes his way to the entrance of the library, careful not to step on the stacks of books scattered everywhere from his earlier escapades deeper into depths of the building. Upon reaching the doorway, he pulled on the door, expecting it to open.

It rattles, but stays put. Locked.

Wizard frowns and searches himself for a key. Nothing.  _ I didn’t even know this door could lock, or I would have locked it ages ago,  _ he muses, resolving to go search for the key. He tugs on the door again, just to make sure. It still doesn’t budge.

So off the little wizard goes again, searching the aisles up and down for a key. He goes as far as to try and climb some of the shelves; it doesn’t go too well, given his height, but he manages it. Alas, no key is to be found in the “shallow” area of the library, meaning that he has to delve into the deeper, more shadowy parts again, something that he isn’t keen on doing at night. Still, he doesn’t want to be locked in in the morning.

The further he goes, the more his footsteps echo. He swears that the ceiling is getting further away, and his little lantern seems to illuminate less and less of the area with each step. He forges on anyway; he shouldn’t give up now, after all. Besides, he’s being silly. The dark can’t hurt him, right?

Right. Or so he tells himself, anyway.

Running his hand along the shelves, he wonders how large the library is. It didn’t seem this big from the outside, at least, not as far as he can remember. What changed?

His hand catches on a book sticking out of a shelf. Curious, he tugs on it, pulling it free. It falls open in his hands, revealing a shiny, gold-colored key, which he immediately pockets.  _ Mission accomplished,  _ he thinks to himself, resolving to take the book with him to read later on. It seems a bit suspicious that it would be sticking out like that.

Almost a half an hour of walking later, and Wizard finally finds himself back at the library entrance, quite exhausted by now. He carefully sticks the key into the keyhole, holding his breath as he turns it and pulls at the door.

The door doesn’t budge. The key certainly  _ fit  _ \- he triple-checked it - but the door simply refuses to open, as if held shut by a magical seal.

A magical seal…

Wizard twists the key again, and tugs at the door, panic starting to rise in his chest. The door steadfastly refuses to move, not even one little inch. He stares at it, trying to see anything etched into it, anything at all-

But there’s nothing that hints at why the door won’t open, other than…

His gaze drops to the floor, and he crouches, running his fingers along the edge of the door. It’s smooth, and has the same texture as a hardcover book - something he definitely doesn’t remember it having. He stands back up and tugs on the door once more. Nothing. It doesn’t even rattle this time.

Feeling his panic start to get the best of him, Wizard hurries back to his closet, resolving to try again in the morning. Maybe he just needs more sleep.

_ Yeah, that has to be it,  _ he thinks, in a vain attempt to reassure himself. His lantern seems to be flickering, despite being battery powered - that in itself is beginning to alarm him, though he forces his panic down, at least until he can get back to the closet.

Upon reaching his destination, he flings open the door and slams it shut behind him, not caring about the noise. He hurriedly sets the lantern on the ground and then flops onto the pile of blankets with a groaning noise. As he burrows under the blankets once more, he tries to control his breathing, to no avail - he can’t get it to even out.

Eventually, he passes out, unable to stay awake any longer. And it is then that the lantern finally dies.

* * *

When the morning dawns, Wizard is barely awake, still tired from being asleep. He pushes the door open, ignoring the dead lantern - he’ll have to change the batteries later - and making his way towards the stack of books he’d been going through yesterday.

Halfway there, his brain wakes up fully, and he stops in his tracks before turning and heading towards the door.

In the daylight, it’s much easier to see that the floor ends in something decidedly un-floorlike, and he’s not sure how he didn’t notice it before. On closer inspection, it actually is hardcover book - though what kind, he’s not sure. Out of curiosity, he tries the door. It’s still locked.

Wizard frowns as he inspects the area around the door. Nothing seems out of place, other than the flooring - he can definitely see the evidence of last night’s panicked actions, as well as a bit of strangely-colored wall, but those are the only things out of place. Absentmindedly, he runs his hand over the strange bit of wall, and feels it brush against something papery. Hesitantly, he grabs onto it and pulls it out. It’s a letter of some sort, addressed to him.  _ As if this situation wasn’t strange enough, _ he thinks bitterly.

As he scans the letter, his expression grows more concerned. Once he reaches the end of it, he swallows nervously and walks over to the door again, giving it another tug. Nothing, as expected. It cements the information he’s just been given, and he feels panic start to rise in his chest again as he realizes that he really is trapped in here.

He’s going to be here for a long time, isn’t he?

Yes.

Yes he is.

**Author's Note:**

> this was originally going to end with dad cinnamon content but somewhere along the line it became "wizard is now the new blueberry pie or whatever" and i just rolled with it
> 
> this fic goes all over the place and im not proud of it but im still posting it because i need attention or ill die
> 
> edit: why do you people like this. why


End file.
